Brian Millar crewed on a liveaboard in Scapa Flow during a career break. Here he shares five invaluable lessons he learned along the way
UKDIVING
Brian and the view from his office
Schooled in Scapa
Brian Millar crewed on a liveaboard in Scapa Flow during a career break. Here he shares five invaluable lessons he learned along the way
“
What’ s wrong? Why is nobody ready to get in the water? Are they waiting for a written invitation?” said the voice in my ear.
I clicked the transmit button on my radio.“ No problem, they’ re just doing really thorough buddy checks,” I replied.
“ Fantastic, love that,” said the voice, now notably more relaxed.“ I’ ve got all day for groups who do good buddy checks.”
The voice, and the boat I was on, both belonged to Hazel Weaver, skipper of the MV Valhalla, veteran of 22 seasons in Scapa Flow and, as we established one morning, somebody who’ s performed more than 90,000 diver pickups. Last year I signed on as her bosun for a couple of months, running the dive deck and filling cylinders as well as generally helping out on a complex, slickly-run liveaboard.
I’ d really gone for a short career break, to learn more about seamanship and to do lots of diving in the Flow. What I hadn’ t expected was how much I’ d learn from seeing divers from a crew’ s perspective. I watched them kit up. I watched them jump in. I experienced their group dynamics. And occasionally – very rarely – I may have judged them. Just a wee bit.
These are a few of the things that I’ ve been re-thinking about my own diving after two months of watching other people’ s.
Deckhand Katrin heads for the lift
31